Oregon Outback: volcanoes and high desert

Route description

South of Bend, US-97 runs through pine forest and young lava flows. At Lava Lands you can look into a cinder cone’s crater and walk a short trail over black lava, a good introduction to the volcanic country ahead.

Near La Pine, OR-31 turns southeast into the high desert. A short detour leads to Fort Rock, a ring of volcanic rock rising from the sagebrush where ancient sandals were found in a nearby cave. Further east, gravel roads beyond Christmas Valley reach Crack-in-the-Ground, a narrow fissure you can walk through.

Back on OR-31, the road drops beneath the Winter Ridge escarpment to Summer Lake, where marshes draw huge numbers of birds in spring and fall. Paisley, a tiny ranching town, is close to caves with some of the oldest evidence of people in North America.

The route ends in Lakeview, which calls itself the tallest town in Oregon and is known for hang gliding. Distances are long and services few, so fill up in La Pine and Paisley; in summer the days are hot and the nights cold.